Desktop Research: Challenges and Trends

The initial listing of news clippings was culled from a variety of sources we monitor on a regular basis.

We'd love to see your clippings here as well! Please use the edit this page button to add more, or add comments on how or why you think they may or may not be important. As is the convention throughout the Horizon Project Wiki, we ask you to identify items you think are of high interest to us, as I have done here by typing 4 tilde (~) characters-- - SamJan 27, 2015. This will help us to sift through the articles and determine which ones resonate most strongly with the board as a whole.

Recommended Reading

Adding Coding to the Curriculumgo.nmc.org/adding
Estonia and England are among the growing list of countries worldwide implementing reforms that focus on teaching students to understand and create their own apps and devices.- jmorrisonJan 29, 2015- mnaglerFeb 1, 2015[mnagler]- adrian_limFeb 2, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015- marcia.mardisFeb 2, 2015Florida has made this mandatory in middle school! - cromptonFeb 2, 2015- kevin-johnsonFeb 3, 2015Absolutely. Introduced from Grade 2 to 8 a Scratch coding after school club last year. It was the most popular club, and the MIT Scratch free platform is brilliant and getting better all the time! - roger.blamireFeb 4, 2015 Kids love to code! - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015 Need math reform; coding must replace parts of the math curriculum. - michael.lambertFeb 7, 2015- kathryn.moyleFeb 20, 2015 learning the language of coding is a must for all children. See Papert and MItch Resnick's work. The Australian Curriculum almost added in coding into the curriculum.

American Schools Are Training Kids for a World That Doesn’t Existhttp://www.wired.com/2014/10/on-learning-by-doing/
Alternatively framed as maker classes, after-school innovation programs, and innovation prizes, these programs are frequently not framed as learning at all. Discovery environments are showing up as culture and entertainment, from online experiences to contemporary art installations and new kinds of culture labs. - michael.lambertFeb 2, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 We all need to testify for the Maker Movement!- kevin-johnsonFeb 3, 2015This also fits perfectly into the IBO PYP, MYP inquiry model, a huge and growing intellectual framework for K through 9 especially in international schools. Who said learning wasn't fun and hands-on? - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015- mariaFeb 5, 2015 We know this; how do we get businesses to partner with schools and universities? - michael.lambertFeb 7, 2015 If we can move to a competency model of learning, where students are exploring specific benchmarks for the "real-world", this would be a powerful step in the right direction. - Holly.LuFeb 20, 2015

Canvas Network Announces Minecraft MOOCs and App in a Suite of 15 MOOCs for K-12 Teachers, Students and Parentshttp://www.instructure.com/news/press-releases/canvas-network-announces-minecraft-moocs
Instructure has unveiled a suite of MOOCs including two Minecraft MOOCs that aim to help teachers leverage gamification best practices in the classroom. Enrollment is free and open for registration for anyone in the world at canvas.net.
Instructure is also releasing a Minecraft app for Canvas, which allows students to link their Minecraft account to Canvas and use in-game actions to submit assignments. For instance, students can tag locations of their creations for teachers to visit and explore.- kevin-johnsonFeb 3, 2015Wonderful! We started this year a Minecraft after-school club this year. It is the most popular, and the educational return with Minecraft is immense with physics and math embedded in everything. MOOCs to support educators are critical and good helpers. A user and believer in Canvas. - michael.lambertFeb 7, 2015- Holly.LuFeb 20, 2015

Creating Effective Videos for Flipped Learninghttp://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329832.600-digital-textbooks-adapt-to-your-level-as-you-learn.html
Imagine if textbooks were personalized to meet the needs of each student. Rice University is making this notion a reality through their OpenStax project. "We want a system that turns reading the book into an exploration of knowledge." - mnaglerFeb 1, 2015[mnagler] Hmmm....this still sounds like education is eomthing you do to students rather than encouraging active collaborative learning - students can be the textbook - textbook is such an old term - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015

Do Our Students Understand Our Standards?http://pernillesripp.com/2014/10/16/do-our-students-understand-our-standards/
A 7th grade teacher reconstructed the standards they were seeking to achieve so that all parties understood learning objectives clearly, and then came to an agreement that there are multiple paths to successfully fulfill those expectations. This teacher hopes that by this students will see that there is room for all of their abilities and not just the ones determined by the teacher.- anton.ingleseFeb 2, 2015

“Fliperentiated” Instruction: How to Create the Customizable Classroomhttp://www.edutopia.org/blog/fliperentiated-instruction-create-customizable-classroom-joe-hirsch
The stubborn part about differentiation is trying to synchronize the learning of an entire class in which not every student learns or does the same thing at the same time. Here is where flipped learning can provide a lifeline. "If differentiation is the engine, flipped learning is the grease. Used synchronously, they can power a learning experience that gets students moving faster and farther than ever before."

'Mobile' Schools Use Technology to Break Free of the Classroomhttp://www.wsj.com/articles/mobile-schools-use-technology-to-break-free-of-the-classroom-1410111280- cromptonFeb 2, 2015
Students at Houston's A+ Unlimited Potential school will have class in places such as coffee shops, tapping into free wireless networks to collaboratively edit texts, or visit city parks to photograph wildflowers before researching them online. They will spend roughly half their time out and about, and the rest at a rented space in the heart of Houston's Museum District.- dezuanniFeb 2, 2015 This is what I call heading towards ubiquity! - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015- mariaFeb 5, 2015

Open Education Europago.nmc.org/openup
The European Commission launched “Opening Up Education” to increase the use of publicly funded open educational resources in schools and universities and promote the acquisition of digital skills.- nada4webJan 31, 2015- kevin-johnsonFeb 3, 2015A very progressive and smart move by Europeans. We have Creative Commons, but an overarching, comprehensive portal like this for North America, to point all educators and learners to the best online places would be welcome. - kathryn.moyleFeb 20, 2015 would be good to have in Australia too...

Rethinking Vocational High School as a Path to Collegehttp://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/rethinking-vocational-high-school-path-college
For years, vocational high schools have been seen as a lesser form of schooling – tracking some kids off to work while others were encouraged to go on to college and pursue higher income professions. But things are changing. Vocational high schools are focusing much more on preparing students for higher education. To be successful in this kind of economy, experts say workers have to be multi-skilled and able to retrain for new jobs throughout their careers. Everyone needs a good academic foundation in order to do that, experts say, and most kids in vocational programs were not getting that foundation.- nada4webJan 31, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 The IB's Career Program is a good example of how to balance objectives: http://www.ibo.org/en/programmes/career-related-programme/- lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015 Need more 'focused' paths for students to choose from. Need to 'rethink' courses offered...add innovative/blended courses. - michael.lambertFeb 7, 2015

Where Does Automated Essay Scoring Belong in K-12 Education?https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-09-22-where-does-automated-essay-scoring-belong-in-k-12-education
This article argues that automated assessments are best used by students before turning in their final drafts so that digital tools can help in the revision process. Plus atomated tools can record the student’s process of writing so that each draft--with mistakes and student’s revisions--is recorded and reviewable by teachers. - davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 Biggest obstacle is still teachers' attitudes.

Why Aren’t More Schools Using Free, Open Tools?

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/why-arent-more-schools-using-free-open-education-resources/
In many cases districts haven’t even heard of the open-source options available. In others, there’s a perception that getting something for free inherently means it will be a worse product...- jmorrisonJan 30, 2015- anton.ingleseFeb 2, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 No tech support comes to mind. ;) - kathryn.moyleFeb 20, 2015 Lack of sophisticated technical support officers in schools supported by innovative leadership. Technical support officers who are trained only to provide support to off the shelf products do not understand and are not connected into the relevant open source communities, that can assist them So they are not trained and do not know how to solve problems and get support via the Internet through the various open source communities. Also, leaders of schools tend to not see the links between IT infrastructure for teaching and learning and the content of teaching and learning. There is a disaggregation of these and so 'learning about' and' learning with', are not connected. Furthermore many schools underestimate the 'modelling' to students that occurs with using off the shelf vs open software. We also tend to prefer what we know. Sometime ago a colleague of mine did a small 'experiment' where he taught one class how to design using Gimp and the other using Photoshop. Not surprisingly, the students that started learning with Gimp preferred that software and the class that started using Photoshop preferred it.

Rising concern over untrammelled power of mega tech companies

It could be dismissed as paranoia, but there seems to be growing evidence that some of the the big companies are escaping accountability and any sort of democratic control (See for example Andrew Keen http://www.amazon.co.uk/Internet-Not-Answer-Andrew-Keen-ebook/dp/B00Q1UFD3M/ref=la_B001JS2XPM_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422875091&sr=1-1). Schools' role as the repository of values may be even more important to prepare young people and give them the voice and confidence to vote for and create the world they want in the face of very powerful interests. - roger.blamireFeb 2, 2015 This article has some merit - many Web 2.0 tools are free and open and still many teachers or schools bypass them for the larger, costly implementations - lack of trust, but more so motivation is so there is still 'control' over learning - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015

STEM/STEAM and the Maker Movement (I find it hard to separate these two concepts, to me they're ONE BIG PHENOM) are the two biggest trends for 2015. Biggest challenge is the EdTech Bubble bursters, who have managed to turn technology skepticism "into the new black," i.e., the latest fashion in education. Anyone notice the run-like-a-girl ad during the Super Bowl? One thing that might turn this all around is the potential for getting girls into science, technology, etc. Also making STEM STEAM...so that kids get a well-rounded education...back to the votech issue.http://time.com/104210/maker-faire-maker-movement/- cromptonFeb 2, 2015http://www.iste.org/explore/categorylist?id=7http://steamedu.com/- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015- kevin-johnsonFeb 3, 2015This taps into so much that is sound in learning and teaching.!

K-12 Curriculum Needs a Major Overhaul to Develop Entrepreneurship Skills. There are many good things in the Steve Blank's Lean Start-Up and other entrepreneur curricula: focus on customer discovery, iteration, message awareness, etc. Do kids need to learn more than just a shark tank pitch? - marcia.mardisFeb 2, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 3, 2015http://www.inc.com/steve-blank/teaching-students-entrepreneurship.htmlhttp://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237674- kevin-johnsonFeb 3, 2015The world of work is changing rapidly, and kids today, more than ever, need to learn entrepreneurship. As a recent MIT MOOC I am taking attests - it can be taught, like most else. Agreed, learning via design thinking to support entrepreneurial projects and social entrepreneurship is an exciting area that is also supported my emerging technologies - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015